In the face of increased public awareness and justifiable concern about the collection and misuse of personal data, state legislatures have rushed to propose an array of privacy laws aimed at protecting your information. These states understand that technology can bring greater risk if our personal data are compromised.

Imagine if the U.S. government demanded to seize personal e-mails within the control of a U.S.-based Internet service provider but stored on a foreign server without following the proper legal procedures.

Manufacturers have become technology companies. They have leveraged the Internet to compete, deploy new technologies, connect with their workforce and their customers, reduce costs, cut waste, enhance the environment and create safer, more reliable products. President Obama’s proposal to regulate the Internet, using an 80-year-old law enacted during the era of rotary telephones, threatens to curtail future investment in our nation’s communications infrastructure, which has helped fuel this manufacturing innovation engine.

Congestion at the ports has risen to crisis levels, due in part to the lack of a contract. Negotiations have become toxic, with management accusing labor of “orchestrated slowdowns” and labor accusing management of attempting to “smear the union."